Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way
OldeSoul:
Wow- just spent a good while reading through this entire thread and tell you what, you guys are freakin amazing.
--- Quote from: goadra on June 24, 2006, 12:37:59 pm ---Jack:
When Jack pulls up to Ennis’s house after the divorce, you can hear on Jack’s radio: “...went nuts for it!” >> “Jack went nuts for Ennis” (or vice versa]
--- End quote ---
Also, after Jack drives off, while he's crying, the line of the Emmylou Harris song that is playing during that scene is "...your laughter's like wind in my sails..." which I always took to be a nod towards the Jack/Wind relationship. And now Jack is obviously not laughing (it's actually the only time in the movie that we see him cry, isn't it?)
And if you don't mind me interjecting a line:
When Aguirre comes up the Mountain to tell Jack that his Uncle Harold is in the hospital,
Jack: Bad news, but there's nothing I can do about it up here.
Aguirre: Not much you can do about it down there neither, unless you can cure pneumonia. (as he is looking at Ennis, displeased, through his binoculars)
I've always taken this to be somewhat of a rebuttal to the "one shot thing" line. In other words, this "thing" is not going to go away just because you come down off the mountain. And also, that Jack (and Ennis, I suppose) are powerless to change the way they feel.
And on top of that, I see the binoculars (or Aguirre's use of the binoculars- he wouldn't have seen Jack and Ennis together without them, unless he came up the mountain himself and happened upon them) as a representation of how society and government is stepping over their bounds in regulating the behavior of homosexuals: sodomy laws, not allowing homosexuals to marry, etc. Why should it even bother anyone? And yet they go at great lengths (i.e. use their big binoculars) to spy on and regulate even the most private and remote parts of human experience.
dly64:
--- Quote from: OldeSoul on June 25, 2006, 06:11:35 pm ---And on top of that, I see the binoculars (or Aguirre's use of the binoculars- he wouldn't have seen Jack and Ennis together without them, unless he came up the mountain himself and happened upon them) as a representation of how society and government is stepping over their bounds in regulating the behavior of homosexuals: sodomy laws, not allowing homosexuals to marry, etc. Why should it even bother anyone? And yet they go at great lengths (i.e. use their big binoculars) to spy on and regulate even the most private and remote parts of human experience.
--- End quote ---
I think it is interesting that you use this analogy.There may be some truth in what you say. However, I want to avoid the expectation that BBM is a vehicle to express a larger social message. IMO, this film is a tragic story specifically about these two men who love each other, who live in a time and place where they don't know what to do with their love, and eventually hurt everyone around them, including each other. Although this is a simplistic way of describing BBM, I think it is the backbone of the whole story. (i.e. it is the personal love story between Jack and Ennis).
OldeSoul:
--- Quote from: dly64 on June 25, 2006, 08:50:17 pm ---I think it is interesting that you use this analogy.There may be some truth in what you say. However, I want to avoid the expectation that BBM is a vehicle to express a larger social message. IMO, this film is a tragic story specifically about these two men who love each other, who live in a time and place where they don't know what to do with their love, and eventually hurt everyone around them, including each other. Although this is a simplistic way of describing BBM, I think it is the backbone of the whole story. (i.e. it is the personal love story between Jack and Ennis).
--- End quote ---
Oh I definitely understand and hesitated to even include this, because I agree that BBM doesn't necessarily strive to make any commentary on society as a whole (outside of the story itself and its effect on the two men), just as some people are hesitant to read any deeper religious symbolism into it, either. But when I see those binoculars and how he used them- it has a great meaning for me personally. :)
Am I interpreting the Aguirre conversation correctly, though, do you all think? I always knew there was something deeper there.
dly64:
--- Quote from: OldeSoul on June 25, 2006, 06:11:35 pm ---Aguirre: Not much you can do about it down there neither, unless you can cure pneumonia. (as he is looking at Ennis, displeased, through his binoculars)[/b]
I've always taken this to be somewhat of a rebuttal to the "one shot thing" line. In other words, this "thing" is not going to go away just because you come down off the mountain. And also, that Jack (and Ennis, I suppose) are powerless to change the way they feel.
--- End quote ---
I have a more simplistic view ... I just think it is Aguirre's way of showing that he knows what is going on and that he's not too pleased.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: dly64 on June 25, 2006, 08:50:17 pm ---IMO, this film is a tragic story specifically about these two men who love each other, who live in a time and place where they don't know what to do with their love, and eventually hurt everyone around them, including each other. Although this is a simplistic way of describing BBM, I think it is the backbone of the whole story. (i.e. it is the personal love story between Jack and Ennis).
--- End quote ---
IMO, one of the most amazing things about BBM is that it is completely both at the same time. It is a personal love story with no overt message at all. If a Martian watched it, he/she/it would be oblivious to any larger political implications.
Meanwhile, the story subtly plays upon what viewers know about real life, and tells us something about what society imposes on gay people in general, in 1960s Wyoming as well as in many other eras and cultures. For example, the very fact that the final images involve closets -- the word we happen to use to describe hidden homosexuality -- is not the least bit accidental. The beauty is that it's never at all preachy or hit-you-over-the-head obvious.
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